Roland Blues Cube

cf1988cf1988 Frets: 13
edited December 2016 in Amp Reviews
Has anyone got any experience of these?

I picked one up at the weekend for a couple of reasons:

1) I'm sick of lugging a heavy head and 4x12 cab to gigs

2) I can tell the difference between a valve and solid state amp really easily, but from the videos I've seen this amp sounded pretty nice to me. 
I decided to go for the Blues Cube artist, mainly because I want to gig the amp and have it for home use as well. 

First impressions 

Really easy to pick up. Having thrown my back out a couple of years ago trying to carry a Mesa Lodestar classic 2x12 up a flight of stairs I've always had an aversion to heavy amps. This one however weighs absolutely nothing and should be really easy to carry around for gigs. 

tone wise, it's really easy to get a nice sound pretty quickly. I record this video to demonstrate a lead tone I was playing around with. No tweaking was necessary really, this was recorded pretty much straight out of the box.




Roland are really pushing this amp at the moment, by saying it's pretty much the closest you can get to a tube amp sound from a solid state amplifier. I'm not sure that it sounds exactly like a tube amp, but it's certainly not far off, and at gig volumes the audience probably wouldn't be able to tell. 
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Comments

  • ennspekennspek Frets: 1626
    Nice playing and great amp.
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  • Video link doesn't work for me :(
    Link to my trading feedback:  http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/59452/
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  • cf1988cf1988 Frets: 13
    Thanks mate!
    Should be working now!
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  • Great review thanks @cf1988 ; I thinking of changing my tube amp for the reasons - bad back.......

    How are you getting on with the blues cube now? Have you gigged it? What's it like with pedals? I really only use a clean tone on an amp live - how does this compare to the classic fender amps do you think?
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  • cf1988cf1988 Frets: 13
    HI mate, I'm really impressed by it to be honest. I gigged with it the other day and completely forgot it was solid state!

    It's got loads of headroom and the clean channel sounds awesome. 

    I recorded this video on the amps clean channel with a bit of boost:





    In terms of pedals it seems to take them well, it's hard to describe but after a while you just forget that it is solid state. In all of these videos where I'm demoing the pedals, they are all going through the blues cube.









    It does remind me of classic fender amps but you can also change the amps feel with the tone capsules. I'm probably going to get the Eric Johnson one which supposedly changes it to more of a Marshall type setting. 
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  • Great stuff @cf1988 - thank you. You should probably get some commission from Roland cus I am pretty convinced!
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  • I keep umming and ahing over my Artist. Picked it up in a slightly relic'ed state for a song, and now somebody wants to offer me more for it. I find I have to be quite careful with the EQ on the crunch channel, otherwise there's too much honk with my Tele. But comparing it with a Yamaha THR100 (apples and oranges), it just has something else I can't put my finger on. I'm wondering whether to get the "Vox-y" New York Blues tone capsule.
    Some folks like water, some folks like wine.
    My feedback thread is here.
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  • Any 'new' love for this amp? How about folk who have had theirs for some time, still happy with them?
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  • Any 'new' love for this amp? How about folk who have had theirs for some time, still happy with them?
    I got mine from someone on here a few months ago and really happy with it. I've never owned a proper valve amp (though have played through a few), and I stepped up to the Blues Cube from a Katana 50. Went for this over a valve amp due to the lightness and the excellent power scaling (same as on the Katana).

    It doesn't have anything like the versatility of the Katana, but I never used most of the different models and effects in the Katana anyway. The blues Cube gives a cracking basic tone, very easy to set up to get some good sounds out of it straight from the box. I'm not a keen tweaker and fiddler with settings and knobs, I've always just wanted something that I plug straight into and get some nice sounds from it without thinking too hard about it, so suits me fine. Onboard reverb and tremolo on the Artist version are excellent too IMO, so there's two less pedals you need on your board.

    Word of warning, if you like your higher gain stuff it's definitely not the amp for you. The 'crunch' channel is very much just that. Cranked to the max it can get into classic rock territory, but won't give any more dirt that. Does seem to take pedals well though, but I'm not really a high gain kinda guy so have never tried putting a high distortion type pedal through it to test that out.
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  • ennspekennspek Frets: 1626
    I still have one and still love it.
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  • I keep umming and ahing over my Artist. Picked it up in a slightly relic'ed state for a song, and now somebody wants to offer me more for it. I find I have to be quite careful with the EQ on the crunch channel, otherwise there's too much honk with my Tele. But comparing it with a Yamaha THR100 (apples and oranges), it just has something else I can't put my finger on. I'm wondering whether to get the "Vox-y" New York Blues tone capsule.
    Well, I did the right thing. I just had to have the Artist because someone was selling it for £200, but that meant I had to sell my black Hot. Well I sold the Artist and bought another Hot, and I'm very happy again. Just sounds nice.
    Some folks like water, some folks like wine.
    My feedback thread is here.
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  • Have they quit making the tone capsules?
    Virtually none available new or second hand.
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  • GreatapeGreatape Frets: 3490
    New tone capsule incoming...Jeff Skunk Baxter
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  • GreatapeGreatape Frets: 3490
    Most of the idea snippets on my soundcloud over the last year have been done on a Blues Cube Artist, into a Boss RC3 using various pedals. The appalling quality is due to my high-tech recording solution being phone in front of amp, but it gives an impression of the sound at bedroom volume. 

    No Beat Retreat has a solo with Crybaby into Timmy. Bubbling Under is a Kokko tubescreamer into Kokko delay. Deep Thing is El Capistan plus Sub n Up mostly. 

    https://m.soundcloud.com/paul-conway-6

    I use the amp live with a twelve-fourteen piece horn band. Not as pokey as valves, but the advantages outweigh that. 
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  • jaymenonjaymenon Frets: 804
     I have one of these (the Stage model) and it really is rather nice.

    Replacing the speaker with a Celestion Neo Creamback reduced the weight by a useful further 3kg.

    With the Robben Ford Tone Capsule, it sounds lovely.  I liked so much that I bought the Artist model (with a slightly bigger cabinet), but on balance I preferred the sound of the Stage model, so the Artist (which was a little more ‘boomy’ and perhaps less focused) is now gone.

    It’s supposed to take pedals well, but I do find myself wondering which input to use (low or high)?

     Also to get that Robben Ford sound I have to completely dime the gain on the crunch channel -  from a previous post above on this thread, I now understand that’s normal for this amp...
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9549
    edited August 2019
    Recently bought the Blues Cube Stage. Extremely impressed with it. It really does give me the sound in my head, it weighs next to nothing, the dual feature (the clean and crunch channels running simultaneously) is more useful than I'd ever expected, it takes pedals well, and is loud enough that I've not yet used the 60W setting. Still in the honeymoon period but so far it really is all pros and no cons.
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • Why all the 'sudden surprise' about the new big 'F' ToneMaster amps when the Blues Cube Artist etc. have being doing it for several years now? Just hype and slow sales needing a push????
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  • I bought the Artist model new and at home was very impressed with the sound...however when I played  live with it, straight from the back line, it didn’t cut through. My MK3 Boogie, which the BC was supposed to replace, took it to the cleaners....up against drums and bass it was not good enough....sold it on at a loss.....
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9549
    edited December 2019
    My six-months-old BC Stage is currently back with the store after developing a bit of a fluttery farty noise as notes die away. Bit hard to describe and TBH I'm not sure whether it’s a vibration or an electrical issue. I do realise I’m probably unlucky and that SS amps are generally incredibly reliable, so hopefully a one-off. Nonetheless it does make me just a little anxious.
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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